Mgr., Financial Systems

Summary:
This position will directly report to the Head of Financial Systems for North America. This role is key to maintaining the integrity of Financial solutions through development, maintenance, and enhancement of related systems and reporting strategies to meet the needs of the organization. This position will partner with all levels of the organization supported by NA Shared Service and will provide leadership in projects across businesses, acting as a Finance and Systems consultant.

Financial Systems and Reporting Solutions
Works collaboratively across businesses and the region to proactively diagnose issues and change requests and challenge, track, prioritize and resolve these issues in order to increase efficiency. Troubleshoot integration issues between systems.
Manage and perform user acceptance testing for system enhancements including coordination with cross functional resources across the region
Liaison with I/S and Global technical support teams
Provide technical assistance and/or training to end users to effectively utilize financial applications.
Recommends, develops, and revises reports to meet ongoing and future reporting requirements, user needs, Sarbanes Oxley controls and IFRS standards.
Identify issues resulting from systems, data or organizational changes which could impact SOX standards and/or the financial organization and reports them to the attention of the appropriate individuals
Enable measurement of shared service center key performance indicators, service level agreements and non-compliance reporting through reporting solutions
Ensure adherence to internal controls and financial policies and procedures; ensure integrity of procedures and evidence of controls which contribute to system and data security; provide requested information to auditors
Provides application support such as processing scheduled tasks, support month end closing and the budget/forecasting process, etc.
Design catalog security strategy and optimize payment methods, and resolves any technical errors in catalogs during validation, testing or live use.
Oversight of Supplier Enablement activities including strategy regarding pre-sourced content (catalogs, eMaster agreements, vendor panel, etc.), the technical accuracy of all catalogs
Provide requirements to and or designs for scalable and flexible master data maintenance strategies
Liaison with MDM team to maintain integrity of the financial solutions

Financial Systems Projects
Leads, manages and directs team members in designing and implementing system solutions to meet the organizational needs and effectively analyzes change impacts.
Leads the testing validation effort, and develops appropriate supporting documentation
Acts as overall Project Lead or Work Stream Lead over cross functional teams; responsible for managing projects within budget
Evaluate current processes and identify process improvement opportunities, including development of automated controls. Work directly with Finance stakeholders to analyze specific business requirements and deliver cost effective solutions designed to improve the efficiency and quality of financial information.
Recommends innovative solutions that provide value added solutions for the overall effectiveness of the financial processes; lead user groups in the evaluation of reports and system design to identify opportunities
Represent NA in Global financial systems projects

Technical Expertise
The Financial Systems Team works in a matrix environment, leading or participating in a variety of projects and process improvement initiatives. Members of the team compliment each other and are able to provide in depth expertise in at least one or more of these areas:
SAP and related systems
NEXTS - Ariba based spend process solution
Catalyst Accounts Payable system
Delegation of Authority process and supporting systems
Budgeting, forecasting and decision support tools: TM1, PLANIT
Reporting systems
Microsoft Access databases and Microsoft Excel visual basic programming

Requirements:
Education:
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university with an area of specialization in Finance/Procurement processes and systems
- Post-bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university (e.g., Masters, MBA or equivalent) MBA/CPA preferred

7 - 10 Years: Extensive knowledge and experience working with Financial/Procurement systems with an understanding of general ledger, accounts payable, purchasing, fixed assets, project accounting. Experience with systems implementations and successfully managing and leading teams. Strong supervisory, planning, analysis and problem solving skills. Experience working in an application support environment dealing with clients, troubleshooting application issues, writing/processing data queries

Technical Expertise: (one or more of the following, based on specific role requirements)
SAP: Experience with SAP, Business Warehouse and associated reporting tools (BEX Analyzer, Query Designer, Report Designer).

Ariba: 9r1 Category Manager, Contracts Workbench, Contract Compliance and Buyer from a technical and functional perspective. Experience troubleshooting Ariba application issues, including integration with Financial applications. Ariba Query Language, AQL),

TM1: Technical and functional experience with implementing, supporting, and enhancing a TM1 application. Including the ability to build and update TM1 cubes, develop automated extracts to feed external systems, maintain reporting hierarchies, and develop queries/reports.

Other: Experience with SQL, Java, JavaScript, and XML.

  • Capability to work in a regional organization with multiple clients, dealing as well with corporate/global. Skilled at working effectively and professionally with all Sanofi entities.
  • Solves and works independently and with team to solve complex problems; self starter with a high degree of personal initiative
  • Able to work efficiently under pressure and with little supervision, deliver high level of customer service and proven track record of following through with assignments meeting strict deadlines
  • Ability to influence all levels of management and other functional areas (business, information systems, finance, legal...), using tact and diplomacy.
  • Strong internal customer business focus, result orientation and change management experience
  • Establishes priorities and timelines to effectively manage workload. Able to multi-task with multiple deadlines exceptionally well.
  • Identifies issues or concerns and works with others to determine an effective course of action. High degree of independent problem solving and decision making skills.
  • Excellent organizational skills and a systematic approach to work with care taken over detail and confidentiality
  • Effective analytical skills, attention to detail, and must diligently follow up on many items that are simultaneously in various stages of completion
  • Serve as a leader among peers and are viewed and utilized as the go-to person within their respective segment, across the department, and to internal customers.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills, interpersonal skills, and ability to work in teams
  • Excellent business process knowledge and technical skills

    Knowledge of the pharmaceutical business as a plus. Interpersonal skills to manage internal communication and interact with all levels of management.